Joni Wallis

Last updated
Joni Wallis
Alma mater University of Manchester (BSc)
University of Cambridge (PhD)
Scientific career
Fields Cognitive neuroscience
Neurophysiology
Decision making
Reinforcement learning [1]
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Thesis Functions of the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)  (2000)
Doctoral advisor Angela C. Roberts  [ Wikidata ]
Other academic advisors Earl K. Miller
Website wallislab.org

Joni Wallis is a cognitive neurophysiologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. [1]

Contents

Education and early career

Wallis received her Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Manchester in 1995. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology and Anatomy from the University of Cambridge, where she worked in the laboratory of Angela C. Roberts  [ Wikidata ]. [2] [3]

Career and research

Wallis moved to the United States for her postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Earl K. Miller studying neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex, [4] or the region of the brain that plays a key role in executive functions, which allow animals to coordinate appropriate responses to plan, reason, problem solve, and effectively reach goals. [5] [6] There, she explored the neural basis of how the prefrontal cortex encodes abstract rules to inform decisions under different circumstances. [7] [8]

Wallis's research centers on understanding how the frontal cortex of the brain is functionally organized to help people set and attain goals at the level of single neurons. Decision making requires weighing the costs and benefits of different courses of action. Wallis's group has investigated how cost-benefit analysis is undertaken in the brain to make effective decisions by monitoring single neuronal activity. [9] They trained monkeys to make decisions that required integrating reward that required a certain amount of effort cost or a certain amount of delay cost. They found that single prefrontal cortex neurons played a role in encoding the type of cost decision the monkeys faced. The finding built on Wallis's previous work that found individual neurons in this region encoded several decision attributes, such as the probability of reward, the magnitude of the reward, and how much effort that reward would require. [10] [11] Her research group also found that neurons involved in associating stimuli with certain rewarding outcomes are found in the orbitofrontal cortex, while neurons involved in associating actions with certain rewarding outcomes are found in the anterior cingulate cortex. [12]

Wallis's group has also studied the dynamics of decision making in both humans and monkeys over the period of time over which they are making a particular decision. [13] Using primate neurophysiology and human magnetoencephalography, they measured how brain activity changed as primates and humans were making different decisions. Their findings were consistent with a mathematical model of decision making, drawing connections between economic models of choice and the underlying neuroscience. In a different study, Wallis's group was able to deduce neuronal signatures as the brains of monkeys evaluate different choices, tracking the dynamics of neurons firing over time and space in the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain. [14] When considering two options, the group of neurons associated with each of the two options would alternate firing, flipping back and forth between the two options before finally deciding.

Her research is currently supported by two Research Project Grants (R01) awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health—one for the Functional Architecture of the Oribitofrontal Cortex awarded in 2014 and the other for the Frontostriatal Rhythms Underlying Reinforcement Learning awarded in 2018. [15] [16] The ultimate goal of her group's work is to better understand how to develop treatments for mental illness. She was first drawn to the field after her PhD supervisor introduced her to patients who sustained damage to their orbitofrontal cortex and had difficulty making decisions, despite having other cognitive processes intact. [17]

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

The mesolimbic pathway, sometimes referred to as the reward pathway, is a dopaminergic pathway in the brain. The pathway connects the ventral tegmental area in the midbrain to the ventral striatum of the basal ganglia in the forebrain. The ventral striatum includes the nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neocortex</span> Mammalian structure involved in higher-order brain functions

The neocortex, also called the neopallium, isocortex, or the six-layered cortex, is a set of layers of the mammalian cerebral cortex involved in higher-order brain functions such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning and language. The neocortex is further subdivided into the true isocortex and the proisocortex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brodmann area 10</span> Brain area

Brodmann area 10 is the anterior-most portion of the prefrontal cortex in the human brain. BA10 was originally defined broadly in terms of its cytoarchitectonic traits as they were observed in the brains of cadavers, but because modern functional imaging cannot precisely identify these boundaries, the terms anterior prefrontal cortex, rostral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar prefrontal cortex are used to refer to the area in the most anterior part of the frontal cortex that approximately covers BA10—simply to emphasize the fact that BA10 does not include all parts of the prefrontal cortex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brodmann area 11</span> Brain area

Brodmann area 11 is one of Brodmann's cytologically defined regions of the brain. It is in the orbitofrontal cortex which is above the eye sockets (orbitae). It is involved in decision making, processing rewards, and encoding new information into long-term memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frontotemporal dementia</span> Types of dementia involving the frontal or temporal lobes

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or frontotemporal degeneration disease, or frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder, encompasses several types of dementia involving the progressive degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes. FTDs broadly present as behavioral or language disorders with gradual onsets. Common signs and symptoms include significant changes in social and personal behavior, apathy, blunting of emotions, and deficits in both expressive and receptive language. Currently, there is no cure for FTD, but there are treatments that help alleviate symptoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dopaminergic pathways</span> Projection neurons in the brain that synthesize and release dopamine

Dopaminergic pathways in the human brain are involved in both physiological and behavioral processes including movement, cognition, executive functions, reward, motivation, and neuroendocrine control. Each pathway is a set of projection neurons, consisting of individual dopaminergic neurons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motor cortex</span> Region of the cerebral cortex

The motor cortex is the region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements. The motor cortex is an area of the frontal lobe located in the posterior precentral gyrus immediately anterior to the central sulcus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prefrontal cortex</span> Part of the brain responsible for personality, decision-making, and social behavior

In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, and BA47.

A neuronal ensemble is a population of nervous system cells involved in a particular neural computation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brodmann area 13</span> Brain area

Area 13 is part of the Orbitofrontal cortex, a subdivision of the cerebral cortex as defined by cytoarchitecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orbitofrontal cortex</span> Region of the prefrontal cortex of the brain

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes of the brain which is involved in the cognitive process of decision-making. In non-human primates it consists of the association cortex areas Brodmann area 11, 12 and 13; in humans it consists of Brodmann area 10, 11 and 47.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supplementary eye field</span> Region of the frontal cortex of the brain

Supplementary eye field (SEF) is the name for the anatomical area of the dorsal medial frontal lobe of the primate cerebral cortex that is indirectly involved in the control of saccadic eye movements. Evidence for a supplementary eye field was first shown by Schlag, and Schlag-Rey. Current research strives to explore the SEF's contribution to visual search and its role in visual salience. The SEF constitutes together with the frontal eye fields (FEF), the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and the superior colliculus (SC) one of the most important brain areas involved in the generation and control of eye movements, particularly in the direction contralateral to their location. Its precise function is not yet fully known. Neural recordings in the SEF show signals related to both vision and saccades somewhat like the frontal eye fields and superior colliculus, but currently most investigators think that the SEF has a special role in high level aspects of saccade control, like complex spatial transformations, learned transformations, and executive cognitive functions.

Frontostriatal circuits are neural pathways that connect frontal lobe regions with the basal ganglia (striatum) that mediate motor, cognitive, and behavioural functions within the brain. They receive inputs from dopaminergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, and cholinergic cell groups that modulate information processing. Frontostriatal circuits are part of the executive functions. Executive functions include the following: selection and perception of important information, manipulation of information in working memory, planning and organization, behavioral control, adaptation to changes, and decision making. These circuits are involved in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease as well as neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and in neurodevelopmental disorder such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Posterior parietal cortex</span>

The posterior parietal cortex plays an important role in planned movements, spatial reasoning, and attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventromedial prefrontal cortex</span> Body part

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a part of the prefrontal cortex in the mammalian brain. The ventral medial prefrontal is located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of risk and fear, as it is critical in the regulation of amygdala activity in humans. It also plays a role in the inhibition of emotional responses, and in the process of decision-making and self-control. It is also involved in the cognitive evaluation of morality.

The primary gustatory cortex (GC) is a brain structure responsible for the perception of taste. It consists of two substructures: the anterior insula on the insular lobe and the frontal operculum on the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe. Because of its composition the primary gustatory cortex is sometimes referred to in literature as the AI/FO(Anterior Insula/Frontal Operculum). By using extracellular unit recording techniques, scientists have elucidated that neurons in the AI/FO respond to sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, and sourness, and they code the intensity of the taste stimulus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl K. Miller</span>

Earl Keith Miller is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on neural mechanisms of cognitive, or executive, control. Earl K. Miller is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience with the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the Chief Scientist and co-founder of SplitSage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prefrontal synthesis</span> Conscious process of synthesizing mental images

Prefrontal synthesis is the conscious purposeful process of synthesizing novel mental images. PFS is neurologically different from the other types of imagination, such as simple memory recall and dreaming. Unlike dreaming, which is spontaneous and not controlled by the prefrontal cortex (PFC), PFS is controlled by and completely dependent on the intact lateral prefrontal cortex. Unlike simple memory recall that involves activation of a single neuronal ensemble (NE) encoded at some point in the past, PFS involves active combination of two or more object-encoding neuronal ensembles (objectNE). The mechanism of PFS is hypothesized to involve synchronization of several independent objectNEs. When objectNEs fire out-of-sync, the objects are perceived one at a time. However, once those objectNEs are time-shifted by the lateral PFC to fire in-phase with each other, they are consciously experienced as one unified object or scene.

Neuromorality is an emerging field of neuroscience that studies the connection between morality and neuronal function. Scientists use fMRI and psychological assessment together to investigate the neural basis of moral cognition and behavior. Evidence shows that the central hub of morality is the prefrontal cortex guiding activity to other nodes of the neuromoral network. A spectrum of functional characteristics within this network to give rise to both altruistic and psychopathological behavior. Evidence from the investigation of neuromorality has applications in both clinical neuropsychiatry and forensic neuropsychiatry.

Social cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the biological processes underpinning social cognition. Specifically, it uses the tools of neuroscience to study "the mental mechanisms that create, frame, regulate, and respond to our experience of the social world". Social cognitive neuroscience uses the epistemological foundations of cognitive neuroscience, and is closely related to social neuroscience. Social cognitive neuroscience employs human neuroimaging, typically using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Human brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct-current stimulation are also used. In nonhuman animals, direct electrophysiological recordings and electrical stimulation of single cells and neuronal populations are utilized for investigating lower-level social cognitive processes.

References

  1. 1 2 Joni Wallis publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. ↑ Wallis, Jonathan David (2000). Functions of the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). OCLC   894597346. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.621700.
  3. ↑ Roberts, Angela C.; Wallis, Jonathan D. (2000). "Inhibitory Control and Affective Processing in the Prefrontal Cortex: Neuropsychological Studies in the Common Marmoset". Cerebral Cortex. 10 (3): 252–262. doi: 10.1093/cercor/10.3.252 . ISSN   1460-2199. PMID   10731220.
  4. ↑ Wallis, Jonathan D.; Miller, Earl K. (2003). "Neuronal activity in primate dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex during performance of a reward preference task". European Journal of Neuroscience. 18 (7): 2069–2081. doi:10.1046/j.1460-9568.2003.02922.x. ISSN   0953-816X. PMID   14622240. S2CID   12280251.
  5. ↑ Miller, Earl K.; Wallis, J. D. (2013), "The Prefrontal Cortex and Executive Brain Functions", Fundamental Neuroscience, Elsevier, pp. 1069–1089, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-385870-2.00050-0, ISBN   9780123858702
  6. ↑ Miller, Earl K; Freedman, David J; Wallis, J. D. (2002). "The prefrontal cortex: categories, concepts and cognition". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 357 (1424): 1123–1136. doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1099. ISSN   0962-8436. PMC   1693009 . PMID   12217179.
  7. ↑ Wallis, J. D.; Anderson, Kathleen D.; Miller, Earl K. (June 21, 2001). "Single neurons in prefrontal cortex encode abstract rules" (PDF). Nature. 411 (6840): 953–956. doi:10.1038/35082081. PMID   11418860. S2CID   4366539.
  8. ↑ Wallis, J. D.; Miller, Earl K. (2003). "From rule to response: neuronal processes in the premotor and prefrontal cortex". Journal of Neurophysiology. 90 (3): 1790–1806. doi:10.1152/jn.00086.2003. ISSN   0022-3077. PMID   12736235.
  9. ↑ Hosokawa, Takayuki; Kennerley, Steven W.; Sloan, Jennifer; Wallis, Jonathan D. (2013). "Single-Neuron Mechanisms Underlying Cost-Benefit Analysis in Frontal Cortex". Journal of Neuroscience. 33 (44): 17385–17397. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2221-13.2013. ISSN   0270-6474. PMC   3812506 . PMID   24174671.
  10. ↑ Kennerley, Steven W.; Dahmubed, Aspandiar F.; Lara, Antonio H.; Wallis, Jonathan D. (2009). "Neurons in the frontal lobe encode the value of multiple decision variables". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 21 (6): 1162–1178. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21100. ISSN   0898-929X. PMC   2715848 . PMID   18752411.
  11. ↑ Wallis, Jonathan D.; Kennerley, Steven W. (April 2010). "Heterogeneous reward signals in prefrontal cortex". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 20 (2): 191–198. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2010.02.009. ISSN   0959-4388. PMC   2862852 . PMID   20303739.
  12. ↑ Luk, Chung-Hay; Wallis, Jonathan D. (2013-01-30). "Choice Coding in Frontal Cortex during Stimulus-Guided or Action-Guided Decision-Making". Journal of Neuroscience. 33 (5): 1864–1871. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4920-12.2013. ISSN   0270-6474. PMC   3711610 . PMID   23365226.
  13. ↑ Hunt, Laurence T; Behrens, Timothy EJ; Hosokawa, Takayuki; Wallis, Jonathan D; Kennerley, Steven W (2015). "Capturing the temporal evolution of choice across prefrontal cortex". eLife. 4. doi: 10.7554/eLife.11945 . ISSN   2050-084X. PMC   4718814 . PMID   26653139.
  14. ↑ Rich, Erin L.; Wallis, Jonathan D. (2016). "Decoding subjective decisions from orbitofrontal cortex". Nature Neuroscience. 19 (7): 973–980. doi:10.1038/nn.4320. ISSN   1546-1726. PMC   4925198 . PMID   27273768.
  15. ↑ Wallis, Joni D. "Project Information - NIH RePORTER - NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results". projectreporter.nih.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  16. ↑ Wallis, Joni D. "Project Information - NIH RePORTER - NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results". projectreporter.nih.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  17. ↑ Cayetano Jr., Reynaldo (2016-11-12). "Neuroscientist Portrait Project: Dr. Joni Wallis". neuroscience.berkeley.edu. Berkeley Neuroscience. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  18. ↑ Terranova, Natalie (2020-11-06). "Wallis awarded funding from The Marian C. Diamond & Arnold B. Scheibel Fund in Neuroscience". Berkeley Neuroscience. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
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